November 25, 2005

Reading time ~2 minutes

I’ve got some new glasses! I had my eyes tested in August, and the prescription had changed so little I didn’t fancy spending £200 to replace my old glasses (which I’d had for nearly 3 years). Then about 3 weeks ago, I was using my PowerBook in bed (calm down at the back there! I was designing a website…) and I realised I’d misplaced my glasses. I found them under the PowerBook, with the lenses scratching against the underside. The left lens picked up a big circular scratch almost exactly aligned with the centre of my eye.

I procrastinated for 2 weeks, then last Monday (21st November) I ordered a pair from Glasses Direct. I ordered frame S019 in matt black, and on the order options page I selected thin lenses (£ 40), anti reflective (£15), UV400 (£15) and scratch resistant (free).

I got a phone call from one of the technicians at Glasses Direct, querying whether I really wanted to pay extra for thin lenses, when my prescription was so slight it probably wouldn’t make much difference. So I cancelled that option and saved 40 quid!

This morning (Saturday 26th November) my glasses arrived in the post, and the lenses are almost imperceptibly thicker than the lenses in my last pair, so that was a really good call by Glasses Direct. None of the opticians I’ve used in the past have ever thought to point out to me that the “thin lenses” option isn’t much thinner than normal lenses for my prescription.

The glasses were supplied in a proper case, with a cloth and a small sticker on one of the lenses reminding me that it was my own responsibility to ensure that I was wearing the correct prescription. Around the glasses case was the receipt, confirming that I’d paid a total of £87.50 including post and packing. That’s the cheapest pair of glasses I’ve bought since I was about 16, and they only took 5 days to arrive.

The glasses fit perfectly, look great, and the prescription seems to be spot on, so I’m a very happy customer. If you live in the UK and need some new glasses, why not browse the styles available on the Glasses Direct website? All you need to place an order is a recent eye test (they say no older than 2 years, my prescription was only 3 months old).

They have a cool feature on the site where you can upload a picture of your face (without glasses) and overlay images of their glasses over your face so you can see what they look like.